FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

The Sarco is not and never will be for sale. The plans will be published in The Peaceful Pill eHandbook.
The cost of Sarco will depend on what is charged by the 3D print shop. While the price is dropping all the time, it will never be very cheap. In 2022, the cost to print a Sarco is around €17,000.
In the early stages of development it was thought that Sarco could double as one's coffin. If the Sarco is printed from suitable biodegradable materials, this is still true. But the high printing cost of Sarco intimates that it may be better to have a Sarco that can be used multiple times over. Better and cheaper for the user. More friendly to the planet.
The Sarco aims to provide a hypoxic (low oxygen), hypocapnic (low carbon dioxide) death. This is similar to when a plane depressurizes. Furthermore, the experience of being in a low oxygen environment can be intoxicating with a feeling of mild euphoria.
The detailed technical specifications and plans will only be available to subscribers to The Peaceful Pill eHandbook. This book is restricted to people > 50 years & of sound mind.
The Sarco can only be operated (turned on) by the person who is actually inside the capsule. There is no door lock. You can change your mind at any time.
A Sarco will never lend itself to rash, impulsive action (irrational suicide). It takes around one month (using multiple 3D printers) to print a Sarco and costs a lot of money. Tragically, people who are desperate to die will always find an easier, faster way (eg. guns, rope, jumping in front of a fast train, jumping off a tall building).
No, Sarco is a real thing. VR software was used at the Amsterdam Funeral Fair in April 2018 to give visitors a sense of what it would feel like to be inside the Sarco capsule.
Sarco will be used first in a country like Switzerland because of the way the Swiss Criminal Code is written. In Switzerland, it is not a crime to help someone to die (assisted suicide) as long as your motives are altruistic. Other conditions that have to be met are that the person must do the action themselves (press the button) and they must be of sound mind. This means Exit can provide a person with a Sarco and they are not breaking Swiss criminal law. Any person who uses Sarco in Switzerland will have had their mental capacity assessed by a medical professional. Sarco can only be activated by the person who is within the capsule.
Yes a person with depression could use the Sarco, as long as they have been assessed by a medical professional as having mental capacity to understand the consequences of their actions.
Yes, it is true that person who uses Sarco climbs into the capsule and will press a button and die within the capsule. To some people this suggests a cold lonely death. But this is not necessarily true. Goodbyes can be said ahead of time. Eye contact can be maintained until the end. Importantly, couples will be able to go together in a Sarco, at the same time and in each other's arms. Besides, some people may not want friends or family by their side when they go. Of course, Sarco is not for everyone, but for these people, it might be perfect.
No, Sarco is not a gas chamber. Gas chambers (eg. during the Holocaust or in American capital punishment) used poisonous gas. In the Holocaust, Zyklon B (Hydrogen Cyanide) was used. In capital punishment in the US, carbon monoxide was used. Sarco is about a low oxygen environment. The air we all breath is ~ 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen. If the 20% oxygen is removed and the air is 100% nitrogen, the person will quickly lose consciousness and die.
The Sarco was inspried by UK man Tony Nicklinson who had locked-in syndrome. The lawyers of Tony approached Exit to ask if Philip Nitschke could invent a device that could be activated by the blink of an eye (this was the only movement Tony had). This got Philip thinking. Using his background in experimental physics, Philip set to work to create the Sarco. Sadly, Tony died before the project could be finished for him.

 

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